Garth Turner

From Conservapedia

John "Garth" Turner (born March 14, 1949) is a Canadian business journalist, broadcaster, and politician. A former member of the Progressive Conservative caucus, he returned to political life as a candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada in the 2006 federal election, beating Liberal Gary Carr in the riding of Halton, Ontario. On October 18, 2006, the Conservative Party suspended him from the Conservative caucus for violation of caucus confidentiality and he sat as an Independent MP. While an Independent, Turner conducted a number of town hall meeting in which he asked his constituents what they felt his course of action should be. Despite almost no support for him joining the Liberals, on February 6, 2007, that is exactly what he did.

Turner was elected as the Progressive Conservative (PC) MP for Halton—Peel in the 1988 election. He became chairman of the consumer and corporate affairs committee. He became a candidate for the leadership of the PC Party in 1993, placing a distant fourth on the first ballot, with 76 votes. In the short-lived cabinet of Kim Campbell he was appointed Minister of National Revenue, but lost his seat in the 1993 election when his party was reduced to just two seats.

Turner returned to politics with his election as a Conservative MP for Halton, which included most of the territory he had represented in his previous term, in the general election in 2006. Local political organizer Esther Shaye acted as his campaign manager, whom he hired afterward as his constituency office manager.

Turner was very critical of former Liberal cabinet minister David Emerson's floor-crossing to the Conservatives. Turner called for Emerson to resign from Parliament and try to regain his seat in a by-election, saying that "anyone who crosses the floor ultimately should go back to the people for ratification and I stick by it and hopefully in this case that will happen....". Despite this message to Emerson, Turner refused to run in a by-election in Halton, after joining the Liberal Party.